CurrentTool or templateFree

Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment

Facilitator's Guide

A guide for Pact staff, partners and other organisations that want to run Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA). The OCA is a participatory, strengths-based method and tool that helps an organisation measure its capacity, rank its organisational challenges and put improvement strategies in place. The guide sets out how a facilitator prepares and runs the process with an organisation. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence.

Why it is in the libraryA step-by-step script for running Pact's participatory, strengths-based OCA, the method used with thousands of local organisations worldwide, under an open licence (pair it with Pact's 2012 OCA handbook).

Open the resource →

Keywords

How to cite

Pact (2018). Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment: Facilitator's Guide. https://www.pactworld.org/library/pact%E2%80%99s-organizational-capacity-assessment-facilitator%E2%80%99s-guide

Related in the library

  • 1.2C002

    A Guide to Organizational Capacity Assessment Tools

    A memo for funders, consultants and nonprofits on choosing and using organisational capacity assessment tools. Informing Change reviewed 91 assessment tools, checklists and guides for the Hewlett Foundation. Sections cover methodology, what a good assessment experience looks like, cross-cutting lessons, how to select a tool and specific situations for using one. A companion spreadsheet database lists the tools. Its main finding is that the process around a tool matters as much as the tool.

    ClassicKey online resourceFree
  • 1.2C003

    Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool

    A self-assessment spreadsheet that nonprofits complete to rate their own capacity. Developed by the Marguerite Casey Foundation from The Conservation Company's Capacity Assessment Grid, it covers 4 areas: leadership, adaptive, management and operational capacity. It includes instructions for filling it in and a scoring calculation, so organisations can benchmark progress over time. Grantmakers also use the results to understand grantee capacity and track its growth during a grant.

    ClassicTool or templateFree
  • 1.2C004

    Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT)

    A survey-based capacity assessment that a nonprofit's leaders complete to rate the organisation across a set of capacity areas, producing scores that show strengths and gaps. Social Venture Partners and other funders use it to open a conversation with grantees about where to invest in capacity. Social Venture Partners International hosts version 1 as a free Excel workbook.

    ClassicTool or templateFree
  • 1.2C005

    Capacity for Conservation

    A free online platform for conservation organisations that want to assess their strengths, plan their development and find learning resources. Built by BirdLife International and Fauna & Flora, it includes self-assessment and planning tools on organisational development and resilience, a resource library of over 260 tools and case studies, an eLearning hub with over 40 courses and an archive of recorded webinars. Teams use it to assess themselves and then follow up with matched resources.

    CurrentKey online resourceFree
  • 1.2C008

    Bridgespan Organizational Effectiveness Framework survey

    An online team survey on Org360 that runs a Bridgespan-based organisational assessment for nonprofits. It has 85 questions and takes about 34 minutes. Areas include strategic clarity, governance, financial sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion, with rating questions and open reflection questions. Leaders, board members and staff respond, and Org360 produces an automatic report with strengths, gaps and a development plan. It is free to use after sign-up.

    Start hereEmergingTool or templateFree with sign-upNonprofit Builder tool
  • 15.2C193

    Business Sustainability Planning and Resource Mobilization Toolkit and Training Curriculum

    A toolkit and training curriculum from Pact for local NGOs and civil society groups. It helps organisations plan for financial sustainability, choose a business model suited to their own funding context and mobilise resources beyond donor grants. Capacity builders use the curriculum to run workshops. Organisations use the tools to draft their own sustainability plans. It is free under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 licence.

    CurrentTool or templateFree

Suggestion box

Something to fix or add here?

Know a better resource on this subject, found a broken link, or spotted a mistake in this record? Tell us.

About C007 Pact's Organizational Capacity Assessment

A person reads every message. A title, a link or a few words is enough.

What is it about?
Why is it useful, or what needs fixing? A title or a link alone is fine too.